Hong Dokji stood up from his seat and spoke.
“The Emei Sect has brought the Sichuan Tang Clan into an alliance to keep the Sichuan Tang Clan in check.”
The fourth young master nodded.
“The wife of the Chengdu Administrator is from that Sichuan Tang Clan.”
At those words, Yeom Baekha slapped her palm.
“So that’s why! The reason the Chengdu Administrator can’t stop the Emei Sect’s blatant abuse towards Daseollang, established by his daughter Sanggwan Nanhwa with her friends…!”
“That’s right. The very reason the Chengdu Administrator could take that position in the first place was thanks to his wife and the Sichuan Tang Clan.”
Yeon Ha-eung made a bitter expression at those words.
“The Sichuan Tang Clan’s strategy of nurturing the Emei Sect and entrusting them to keep the Tang Clan in check. Allowing his own daughter to be pressured for such a reason. The Administrator’s wife is a scary person.”
“It’s not that rare a personality.”“Especially among the upper echelons.”
“Sigh….”
To prevent the conversation from drifting, Yeom Baekha asked a question.
“Then what is the situation with the rest of Daseollang?”
“Their families are wealthy, but the foundations of their businesses are all within the Emei Sect’s territory.”
The fourth young master sighed with his arms crossed.
“They are essentially holding their families hostage.”
Elder Yoo nodded.
“And the rest of Daseollang are also hostages to restrain Sanggwan Nanhwa.”
***
At a safe point almost at the Luoyang Sword House, Elder Yeom and the troops bid farewell to the investment group.
They headed to a nearby Luoyang Sword House external military camp for maintenance, then would return to the War Division.
Everyone exchanged brief greetings, but the window of the Emei Sect carriage did not open.
Elder Yeom also paid no mind to the Emei Sect.
Thus, the investment group procession began climbing the hill along the Luoyang Sword House’s avenue.
“This way.”
And as they nearly reached the Luoyang Sword House, the window of the Emei Sect carriage opened.
Seeing a wrinkled hand stick out and beckon her, the nun accompanying the Head Priestess quickly rode her horse alongside the carriage.
“Yes, Head Priestess.”
From inside the dark carriage flowed the Head Priestess’s low voice.
“From now on, instruct the children to never show any signs of agitation.”
The nun who bowed her head at those words sent a voice transmission to the Emei Sect personnel.
[Everyone, the Head Priestess commands to heed the warning to absolutely never look around or be distracted.]
No sooner had that voice transmission ended than exclamations burst out from the procession riding ahead.
“Ooh!”
The investment group personnel made a commotion without exception.
“Is that the main compound of the famed Luoyang Sword House?!”
“Hey, move your head a bit so I can see!”
“No, why are you blaming me for your short neck?”
Hearing the noisy clamor, the Head Priestess clicked her tongue and roughly shut the window.
Regardless, the investment group personnel stuck their heads out of the carriages climbing the gentle slope, making a fuss over the scenery unfolding before their eyes.
It was an undignified sight to the stiff imperial capital people or the Luoyang people who liked to maintain appearances.
Yeon Ha-eung, who was riding atop a carriage roof, inwardly gave a wry smile.
‘But that is the delightful characteristic of Sichuan people.’
As he thought.
The one most excited by the Luoyang Sword House’s appearance starting to be revealed beyond the hill was the investment group representative, the Tang Clan’s Virtuous Tang Gogyu.
Sitting beside Yeon Ha-eung, he was clapping his hands and rejoicing like a child.
Seeing that, Yeon Ha-eung smiled and asked,
“Didn’t you visit several times in the past, Your Excellency Tang?”
Tang Gogyu chuckled and nodded.
“Indeed. Indeed I have. But I can’t help but marvel each time I see it.”
Right then, the investment group personnel let out another “Wow!”
A middle-aged man who had stuck his head far out of the carriage shouted to Tang Gogyu with a flushed face from excitement.
“Virtuous Tang! Virtuous Tang! Is that the famous sword house’s city wall?!”
As they climbed the slope, a red city wall abruptly revealed itself as if shooting up, eliciting amazement from everyone.
It was not dyed by the sunset glow but an actual red city wall.
“What consistent reactions!”
At that question, Tang Gogyu guffawed and shook his head.
“Everyone asks that the first time they visit the sword house, but no. No!”
Yeon Ha-eung, seeing Tang Gogyu too busy laughing, explained in a loud voice on his behalf.
“That is merely an earthen wall! The main compound excavated, restored, and touched up the ruins of an ancient dynasty!”
The reason it had a reddish tinge was because it was an earthen wall.
However, as Tang Gogyu said, the reason people showed the same reaction was the earthen wall’s immense scale.
As the procession followed the well-paved carriage road to the earthen wall entrance, the reconstructed gate entrance of the Luoyang Sword House came into view.
“That right there is the first gate leading to the sword house!”
Indeed, as he said, the earthen wall entrance was constructed in the form of a complex wooden fortress.
As the carriages that had arrived earlier and were waiting their turn slowly passed through, Yeon Ha-eung dismounted from the carriage.
“Hello there! Good work!”
At his lively greeting as always, the Gatekeeper greeted him with a smile.
“Well, if it isn’t Advisor Yeon?”
Due to the nature of his work in External Affairs, constantly going in and out like his own doorstep, there was no way the Gatekeeper would not know Yeon Ha-eung.
“Even Advisor Yeon must follow the inspection procedures, you know.”
“Of course, of course.”
Yeon Ha-eung took out his identification tablet, Luoyang Sword House entry pass, and the fourth young master’s invitation for the investment group procession from his bosom and handed them to the Gatekeeper.
“Please wait a moment.”
A guard who had approached in the meantime rubbed a medicinal cotton swab on Yeon Ha-eung’s face.
“Human skin mask, shapeshifting check complete. Thank you for your cooperation.”
The Gatekeeper entered a small office and verified the authenticity of the identification tablet and entry pass.
And only after meticulously cross-checking it with the fourth young master’s pre-submitted entry cooperation request and invitation for the investment group did he come back out.
“Sorry for the long wait.”
“Not at all. Haha.”
The Gatekeeper, who handed Yeon Ha-eung’s items back to him, waved his hand to signal his subordinates.
“Pass!”
The guards then cleared the way by removing the wooden obstacles.
The crossbows aimed at the procession from atop the earthen wall also turned their heads, and the gazes of the guards with their hands on arrow tubes here and there shifted to the next approaching carriage.
“Alright, let’s move again!”
The obstacles were cleared and the investment group procession began moving again, but they could not ride as swiftly as before.
It was due to the zig-zag structure inside the gate.
“….”
Those who had stuck their heads out to sightsee fell silent.
Because the sight of the troops deployed above the zig-zag passage to pour crossfire at any time was threatening.
Nevertheless, no one retracted their heads back into the carriages.
They were anticipating what scenery would unfold as soon as the gate ended.
“Oooh!”
This time, the Luoyang Sword House’s stone city walls they had been hoping for revealed their majestic might.
A height that could not be scaled even by placing ladders.
A length that exceeded human sight.
A scale that was hard to believe a mere clan had constructed.
Awe.
“….”
Even the investment group people who had been chattering busily shut their mouths.
Or with their mouths gaping wide, they could not utter a single word.
Seeing such a massive scale of city walls on Luoyang land where it was hard to even imagine foreign invasions made the onlookers feel an intense sense of dissonance.
Seeing such reactions from people, Yeon Ha-eung inwardly gave a wry smile.
‘Even I, who always travel this road, tend to be at a loss for words each time I see it….’
Right then, Tang Gogyu spoke to Yeon Ha-eung in a low voice.
“Seeing the complexions of those folks, it feels like the rice cake I overate and got sick on my fifth birthday is all going down.”
“Is that so…?”
At his words, Yeon Ha-eung furtively glanced back.
The reactions of the Emei Sect personnel varied.
A nun blankly gazing at the city walls’ might and riding her horse to the wrong place.
A nun pretending to look elsewhere but sneaking peeks at the equipment of the armored cavalry unit on patrol.
A nun with a stony expression but a somewhat pale complexion.
The splendid monk’s robes and luxurious accessories the nuns were wearing were instantly losing their luster.
“So this is the number one clan under the heavens….”
“It is no exaggeration to say they rank everyone below them except the imperial family.”
“Not a remote area but a castle city in the middle of the Central Plains. Is it to flaunt the sword house’s power?”
“If so, it certainly has that effect. To think a single clan accomplished all this, my legs are trembling.”
“Hoho. Just seeing a sight like this, the enemies of the Luoyang Sword House will likely have their legs give out, no?”
As conversations started to flow, Yeon Ha-eung muttered,
“Is that so…?”
At that voice, Tang Gogyu, who had been sightseeing the city walls, asked,
“I was distracted and didn’t hear. What did you say?”
Yeon Ha-eung waved his hand.
“It’s nothing. Nothing at all.”
Tang Gogyu, who had been looking at Yeon Ha-eung quizzically for a moment, got distracted again by looking around and sightseeing.
‘No matter how high you raise the city walls, no matter how thick you build the city walls, there are always those who covet and try to take what belongs to others.’
Yan Xiaoyang looked up at the city walls gradually drawing nearer, too tall to see the end of without craning one’s neck.
‘The more one has, the more one fears losing even more, and the more one gains, the more one covets others’ possessions.’
Behold this tower of vanity and ostentation the Luoyang Sword House has built.
Behold this wall that seems to embody the appearance of iron-fisted rule and iron-handed sanctions.
Behold the history built upon the blood and corpses of foe and friend alike.
Behold those who gladly hate the Luoyang Sword House.
‘The white-haired, green-eyed lonely old devil of the Emei Sect.’
Even without checking, he could tell that the old woman was glaring at the Luoyang Sword House’s city walls with smoldering eyes from inside the dark carriage.
After the era of the Wulin Alliance ended, the Emei Sect had emulated the success cases of influential clans and was enjoying success incomparable to the past.
‘As the times changed and many other sects fell, the old woman successfully revitalized the Emei Sect.’
Nevertheless, the old woman hated the Luoyang Sword House.
She envied the Luoyang Sword House merely for standing above them.
What would that old woman be unwilling to do to catch up to the Luoyang Sword House?
The Luoyang Sword House endlessly building up city walls were hungry ghosts, and those coveting their position were also hungry ghosts.
The world was a battlefield of hungry ghosts.
‘Though I’m in no position to say such things.’
Yeon Ha-eung mocked himself.
Wasn’t he someone trying to get his hands on Gaebong Yeon Clan in the first place?
Wasn’t he someone who thought hundreds of times a day about how to take over the clan or burn it all down?
How could he point fingers at others?
His gaze turned to the carriage Daseollang was riding in.
They too had their heads stuck out the window, their minds occupied with sightseeing the never-before-seen scenery of the Luoyang Sword House.
‘Which side will they be on?’
In a situation where hungry ghosts trying to devour them alive were pouncing.
Were they prepared to survive this hungry ghost struggle?
Were they ready to gladly become hungry ghosts themselves and be devoured?
“You’re saying this city wall surrounds that famous castle city?”
At that question, Tang Gogyu burst into laughter again and replied,
“I knew that question would come up! Hahaha!”
Yeon Ha-eung swallowed a wry smile and answered in a loud voice.
“This city wall is merely the outer wall, and past the outer wall residential district is the inner castle!”
Indeed.
The Luoyang Sword House’s castle city even had double city walls.
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